Build Your Own Mini Tall DIY! OVER 70 FUCKIN FOTOZ!!

Okay, this one's long overdue but you'll see why shortly. So hunker down with some snacks cause it's gonna take a while to get through this one. Hopefully by the end of this post, those of you who have expressed interest in building your own Mini Tall will be super stoked and ready to start your own projects :-D. So here goes!

PLEASE NOTE: I was taking these photos as I was working so A) They're not all perfect and B) There's so many I didn't bother putting as much effort into each one as I normally would. However, I think they'll do the trick..

DISCLAIMER: This is the part where I cover my ass by saying that I take zero responsibility for you being a fucktard and chopping off your fingers off or blowing your garage up because you're too retarded to know any better.
While I consider this design to be the easiest and fastest way to build a proper straight and true mini tall bike to standard geometry (that's WAY more fun than scary compared to a standard double tall Tall Bike ((Not to mention WAY less noddle-ly feeling when you stand up to throw the muuuuther fucking hammer down!!)) ), it will require some previous knowledge and expertise to pull it off properly. If this is your first project, don't be discouraged! Please be sure to take your time and don't rush through anything. Mitering tubes by hand takes patience and a lot of fitting and filing, fitting and filing, etc, etc..

Okay, now that we've gotten all of the BS out of the way, on to the fun!

First of all, get really fucking stoned off your ass and watch the ENTIRE Back to the Future Trilogy. In a row. No breaks. Don't forget the Pringles and Pop ems' tho! You won't make it through without them!!

Right then, now that you're fully stoked off your fucking ass, get yourself two frames with exactly matching TT's if you can. In my case, two same size Milwaukee Bruisers:

If not, you can manage with a difference of a cm at most. Any more and you're going to have to shorten the TT of the top frame to compensate. In which case, make sure the top frame's TT is longer than the bottom frame's TT. You can do with the opposite but I feel like that would be a bigger PITA..

Aside from hand files, and a welder/torch set up, having a cut off wheel:

..and some ear and eye protection:

Will make your life MUCH better..

To help you better visualize the first chop at hand, place a piece of masking tape along the center of the DT and bottom stay/dropout rear drop out:

Now that you have a better idea of what's about to happen, take the first step by chopping the DT as close to the HT as you can without damaging the HT or TT (smaller worn down cutting wheels will help with the tight spots. A dremel or small metal hand saw wouldn't hurt either):

First incision done:

Next, chop into the DT and ST at the BB junction:

Then chop the ST a few inches up giving yourself a little extra material to work with..

Chopped!:

Next you want to chop the rear stay. But before you do, be sure to install an axle or what have you to keep the rear spacing correct and tight enough so it won't suddenly slip out since that would really suck. In this case, 120mm:

Chopped!:

Next - Clean your chopz!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Then use the tape from earlier to help guide you while making your ST miter:

You'll notice in the above photo that the chain stay is now too long and needs to be shorted in order for the BB to intersect the ST properly.

Figure out your new drop out configuration and shorten it to fit the space:

PLEASE NOTE: Chopping the stay this way has it's PRO and CON. The PRO being that a shorter chain stay equals a tighter drive train which is AWESOME! The CON however is that the tire will now sit in much closer to the BB which means tire width is often an issue. You can easily compensate for this by shaving out some space on the insides of the chain stays. PITA but in all likelihood, you simply WON'T have a choice. Esp if you want to run some fatty tires! Double check things BEFORE you weld it all up so you have an easier time working on it while the BB and chain stay are separate..

You don't want to go too far with your miters til you have the DT close to being done as well. You'll need both close to being done for the final fit..

Here you can see how far off the DT's original miter is for this design:

Much better after a little work:

Just about there!:

Close up of the ST miter:

Check that fucking line up THRICE!:

Looks great!

Here we are all cleaned up and waited to be welded up:

BE SURE to tack it only at first to check the line up! Check it at different angles as well and get a second set of eyes you know you can trust if possible. Once it all looks good go ahead and weld the sucker up!

The smoke looks cool when it bellows out during welding:

Now the only welding gear I have is a MIG welder and a Torch set up. Since I'm still acquainting myself with the torch, I figured I'd stick with the MIG welder for this job since I'm more familiar with that. Esp seeing as how it's a bruiser and is they need to be built tough. If I had a TIG welder and the experience required to use one, I would most certainly would've used that instead..

Here's the main reason why:

FUCKINGSONOFABITCH!!!

Yeah, that shit bums me out big time! However, since Brusiers are loaded up with gussets I figure adding one more to the mix couldn't hurt:

Weld that bitch up:

and FUCK YES!!!

Here's the whole sub frame all welded up:

For some reason the only pic I have at this stage is a shitty iPhone pic:

Don't worry about the messy welds yet either. Once you have the frame completed you can spend all the time you want cleaning up those joints and makin' em nice and smooth. Or just leave em like that if you don't give a shit. I personally spent a bunch of time smoothing out the weld with some brazing and a lot of filing..

This first part concludes what I see to be the most time consuming and challenging part of the build. There's more tough parts ahead but mitering and properly aligning the sub frame really is the make or break moment..

Next, on to chopping the second frame!

You don't need any tape here. Just chop like so making sure to give yourself an extra amount of ST once again:

Save the bottom piece for something else and or scrap..

With this part of the frame, you're going to have to patch some holes along with the clean up:

What I did was cut some circles from other tube pieces and put them carefully in place. Leave them a little bigger than the holes so you can squeeze em into place. Having a magnet or tacking on a piece of wire to help hold it in place would also work..

First one brazed, second one in and about to start:

Second one done..

and cleaned:

Now for the top of the rear stay..

Start:

Cleaned:

Now, here's the interesting part. The orange frame had a seat post so badly seized up in there that I had to make this long incision into the back of the ST to get it out:

With any luck you won't have to worry about some shit like this but I figured I'd include this in the DIY just to show you how I fixed the issue while adding a little flair in the process..

First thing I did was patch up a portion of the original incision (along with a hole):

You just have to be careful not to get too much material on the inside of the ST cause then you'll have problems putting the post in later. I used a dremel to help ream the inside out a bit..

Here it is with both holes patched and cleaned:

Then I decided to add a little flair in the form of a patch. I started out with a piece I took from of the bottom frame. Which in the end I really wish I hadn't since it was way too thin for this type of shit. The thickness of the piece I use a few steps from now would've been MUCH better..

Final piece:

I decided to go for an 'M' for Milwaukee :-)

Covers the area quite nicely!

Brazing a piece this small was kind of a nightmare. Since the metal was so thin it would constantly warp funny unless I put direct pressure on it. Didn't help I'd never done something like this before..

Yeah, I made a mess. Came out decent enough tho!

Next is the extension for the HT's! This is the first time I've make a freak bike from frames with 1+1/8th HTs so it made things interesting. I usually use a piece of standard 1" gas pipe for the extension but I obviously couldn't with this build. Unfortunately the next size up pipe proved to be a bit too big. To compensate for this I put a section of the larger sized pipe in the vise and made a slice:

Made sure there was ample space for the weld material it grab on to:

Clamped that bitch shut:

Welded it back together:

Cleaned it up:

and we're GTG!:

Next I made an insert for the where the top of the bottom frame's ST meets to bottom of the top frame's ST. Adding some meat to the inside helps strengthen things up:

I was still stoked on the janky 'M' I made earlier, I decided to go with a little more flair in the form of a collar:


Bitchin'!


Next you want to chop the top frame's ST down til you get it where you want. At the same time you want to work on the HT extension as well. This is where you can fit the frame to your riding size preference. Measure the CTC or CTT of the ST as you go along. Once you get it to your size you're all set! Then shave down your HT extension and make sure they're even on both sides. Once you get them both lined up properly and tacked up nice, be sure to double check the alignment. Since I set this up with an insert on the inside of the ST's I was able to cut the top frame's ST a little short. Once I figured out the HT extensions length and tacked it up, I then adjusted the height of the rear accordingly..

HT tacked:

Once I was confident everything was in proper alignment, I went ahead and welded/brazed everything together. Here's the ST collar covering where the two frames were attached:

HT's all welded up:

and there you have it- ALL DONE WITH the frame!!

The next thing you have to do is weld up the fork extension to fit the frame. I've done this a bunch of times but I can tell you that building this fork was the HUGEST PITA to say the least! A standard one inch fork can be easily extended with a piece of half inch gas pipe as seen towards the end of this post from a while back, along this this photo..

Having the fork properly aligned is CRUCIAL! If you don't do it right you'll spend hours fucking with it or just re-chopping and rebuilding it so take your time..

The fork on this build was especially hard because not only were the steerer tubes 1+1/8th which meant I couldn't go with the standard 1" with 1/2" insert pipe set up:

but the inside diameters were totally different:

Fucking. SUCKED!

So yeah, it took me a while but in the end I got to work properly and bar spin okay too!

PLEASE NOTE: Don't even think of using a sealed bearing set up for one of these bikes! Unless you've made the extended steerer tube and HT extension absolutely perfect. Which you honestly can't do unless you're already a pro builder or have some crazy jig or some shit..

Also, there's a reason why I use Thomson set back seat posts for these builds. While tossing about a foot of another frame on top of a standard geo frame isn't too big a deal, it will sit your ass back closer to the rear axle. I learned with my first tall bike that doing so makes wheelies SCARY easy. To help aid in keeping the balance in the right place, fit the bike with a set back post reversed and add an extra cm or two to your normal stem length. This will effectively combat the scary wheelie thing..

Since we're on the topic of seat posts, Thomson set back posts only come in seven different sizes. 26.8 and 27.2 being the most common. Here's a full list at the bottom of the page. Point is, while you can make this style of mini tall bike from just about any frame, if you want to use a Thomson set back post, make sure the top frame's ST size is a more modern size. There are other posts out there that can do the same thing for me, not to mention you could probably just make one yourself. I just dig Thomson gear..

In any case, once you get that shit all clean, smooth and painted, built that fucker up and get RADICAL!!:

Pics by da Prollz- thanks again man! More about that day on his blarg and his flickr..

This DIY is pretty fucking huge and it wouldn't surprise me if I left some gaps or unanswered questions. Please leave me some comments on the subject and I'll add info where I think it's necessary..

The biggest thing about this build for me is the move from nerding out on others builders bikes, to nerding out more on my own! All the other freak bikes I'd built up til when, dare I say- 'developed' this design have been more about building something silly, as opposed to something you can properly tear ass around on. Riding this bike (and the other one I built recently which you'll be seeing very soon) is nothing short of the funnest fucking thing on two wheels I've ever ridden. I'm not even fucking around in the slightest either! It's just the right height. Tall enough to see over cars and be silly/fun/rad looking, but not so tall you're nervous while riding through traffic worrying about falling over, when you're going fast and or making sudden turns or suffering carrying it up stairs or loading it into a car. Fucking thing handles like a champ and is super stiff too! Love it!!

You owe it to yourself as a true cyclist to create something yourself, whatever it may be, and feel the exhilaration of flying down the street on something you made with your own two hands!

Okay, wow, enough already huh?! This is like the longest blog post in blogishpere posting history!! In any case, I hope you all enjoyed this DIY and get around to making a mini tall freak bike yourself. Be sure to send me some snaps if you do!!

Build Your Own Mini Tall DIY! OVER 70 FUCKIN FOTOZ!!

AWESOME new Milwaukee Bruiser Mini Tall freak bike: HOPE YOU CAN HANDLE IT!!!

aaawwww yyeeeaahh, you read that headline right! MKE Bruiser Mini Tall tricked out with BMX steez- WUT- WUUUUUUT?!!

Larger snaps on my flickr..

Pretty bitchin huh?! Okay, well maybe not so much the photos. Def doesn't help that being unemployed means that I'm back to retouching on my crappy laptop screen instead of the $2000 monitor at my former office. Oh and yeah, if you can't tell, pin striping isn't exactly my specialty at the moment..

Aside from that THE FUCKING THING RULEZ SO HARD I CAN BARELY STAND IT!!!

It rides so. good. Tooootal fucking BLAST to roll around town on, bunny hop up curbs and lean real hard into turns on. Everyone who's given it a go has said the same: 'WTF this thing ROX man!!'

Here's the parts list:

Two heavily modified MKE Bruisers frames
All City New Sheriff Track Hubs laced to Velocity Chukker rims (WTF is with the decal glue?!)
Profile Race Crankset w/Profile racing Euro BB
Tree lite Sproket 48 spline 39T (will trade for same in 42 or 43T!)
Izumi Eco Chain
Animal Hamilton Plastic Pedals
Primo Aneyerlator stem
Volume Bars
Oury Grips
Vintage Turbo Saddle
Thomson set back post reversed
Demolition Vulcan rear U brake
Odyssey Monolever right hand brake
Cane Creek S-3 headset
Fyxation tires

This bike happened after a conversation I had with Prolly one night under the BQE at Peels. He was saying how he mentioned to the guys at Ben's Cycle that it would be funny if they sent me a couple of Bruiser frames to build a new tall bike from and I was like heeeeelllz yeah it would be fucken awesome!! So I gave em a ring and was like- YO SEND ME SOME FRAMEZ SUCKAZ!! And they were like- okay, chill. NOT new frames mind you! Just a couple of already beat on frames they had lying around from their riders. I set to work not long after I got em. Here's what they looked like once first paired:

As you can see from the build I decided to go with a single speed BMX style build up. Having not really ridden BMX since the late 80's, I figured this would be the best and most fun set up for me. That and I kinda had this image in my head of myself cruising down the street on it while smoking a bone. So yeah, SS and a brake seemed like the best choice..

The biggest departure would have to be the new color in my arsenal. As you can imagine after building three orange and black bikes I felt like it was time for a change. I figured a nice green would best suit my taste due to the overwhelming fact that I reside in a relatively radioactive dump of an area in Jersey (1/9 REPRESENT!). Having said that, not ALL of Jersey is a fucked up toxic heap believe it or not. They don't call it the 'Garden State' for nothing!

So I walked up the street to the custom car painting supply place and looked through their color swatches. What I found waiting for me was THE perfect color:

FUCK. YES.

Tho I have to say, something tells me they mixed up Industrial Waste Green with Happy Green. Eh, works for me in any case!

Once it was all said and done I was off to the Philly Bike Expo to hang out and show off my silly freak bikes. People were most def stoked on it! As was I every time I had to run out for something since I made it a point to take this bad boy out every chance I got. I have to say that the thing I like most about this bike, is the fact that I only want to ride the bikes that I've built myself. Like I suddenly don't really have as much interested in riding other labels or collection odd ball shit. Okay, well, that might be just a liiiittle bit of a stretch..

So stay tuned cause I'm sure there's more to come with this one! Like a Gyro and front brake perhaps? Oh and I'm sure Prolly will post some more photos on his blarg from last week when we hung out and he made jump off shit with it. So fun! So retarded!!

HUGE thanks to Prolly and Ben's Cycle on this one! It wouldn't have come together without you extremely handsome and diligent gents!! SO SUPER STOKED ON THIS BIKE!!!

You can also expect a HUGE DIY post in the future with LOTS of nice pics and tips on how to build your very own Mini Tall bike!

Oh and one more thing: The can that I used to spray paint the forks is empty. Just wait til you mother fuckers get a load of what I used the rest on!

AWESOME new Milwaukee Bruiser Mini Tall freak bike: HOPE YOU CAN HANDLE IT!!!

This dude SLAYS me!

He's already put together some great home builds in the past and now he's gone and built his own Obree inspired Hour Record bike from balsa wood and carbon fiber:

Tons more info and pics about his process found here..

Oh and Chorbin, would you PLEASE go out and get yourself a decent camera?! The shots work but you at least NEED A PROPER flash or something in that shop of yours. A great trick is to use an optical slave unit taped to the front of you camera's flash (covering it) which is connected to a higher power flash or better still, flasheS. Then bounce them shits off the ceiling. Keep in mind I'm only giving you shit cause your stuff is SO worth seeing and deserves to been seen in richer detail :-)

DYING TO SEE THAT BIKE COMPLETE AND IN AKSHUN!!!

This dude SLAYS me!

Quite possibly the weirdest..

..and kind of awesomest skate video to come out of Japan:

Quite possibly the weirdest..

Now this..

..is some SERIOUS BMX akshun!:

damn..

via G.S.GUCCILIFE

Now this..

Gnarly shit getting done in the woods!

Chubey Opener Brighter Segment from Mitch Chubey on Vimeo.

via Projekt-B

Gnarly shit getting done in the woods!

SKATEISTAN - To live and skate in Kabul

Fucking gnar man! Seeing the conditions of the streets they have to roll through makes me feel like a puss for complaining about a little gravel here and there..

Thanks Antione!

SKATEISTAN - To live and skate in Kabul

Hand Made Cruft..

You can imagine my amusement at finding this included in my new tire cage..

Hand Made Cruft..

Asher Bradshaw: Reddic at age 6!

Mind blown at :53



Thanks Morgan!

Also, that other thing you sent me burnt my retinas :-/

Asher Bradshaw: Reddic at age 6!

Going away for a few days..

Yup, that's right! Getting the FUCK out of NYC and da Jerz for a few days with my lady from Wednesday til Sunday. Nothing special, just gonna hop on down to Miami and the Keys to enjoy some fun in the sun. Which I'm pretty stoked on after having just battled the high winds head on earlier today while out for a ride..

I say nothing special cause well, it's Florida. No offense to the Floridians or anything but most will agree it can be kinda wack in some areas. By 'some' I mean most BTW. However, it's a cheap 3 hour flight to warmer weather and beaches you can swim at. I've also been down there a bunch of times already with friends in the past so yeah, it just works. Also, Key Lime pie and Mahi-Mahi are two of my favz!

The weather's looking good there this week/end: Low 80's daytime, high 70's at night and the water is about 76° which is like 5° warmer than it ever gets around here. So yeah, time to hit tha mufuckin' beach suckaaaaazzzzz!

I don't really plan to do much in the way of cycling while I'm down there. Tho I wouldn't mind stopping by Business Cycles and anywhere else some of you Floridians might know about that's worth scoping out. Feel free to include events, places to eat, secluded beaches to fuck on and timeshares you have access to that you don't mind me trashing ;-)

TheTripleC@hotmail.com

In hindsight, going on a quick vacation might not have been the best idea after losing my job but whatevz! Shit's already paid for so why the fuck not?!

I'll undoubted be taking photos during most of the trip and with any luck, I'll have internet access here and there so I can post some updates..

Get ready for when I get back cause I've got three completed builds that I can post once I get around to photographing them :-D

Going away for a few days..

This is fucking with my head right now!

HUH?!!!

WAT IN GOD'S NAME IS GOING ON WITH THAT DRIVETRAIN???!!!

It's actually a pretty interesting set up if you think about it. If anyone's got a clue or a link please share!

This is fucking with my head right now!

Naaasty Nagasawa!

You're gonna wanna bust out the hankies for this one!

ooohh..

diiiiii..

iiiiii..

iiiiii..

iiiiii..

iiii..

iiiiIIGGG!

Now you know why I sold the white one a while back!

More snaps on my flickr along with the slide show..

The story behind this one is that it was on display at Interbike 07' and purchased by Allyson V. not long after. She fell in love with it and took it a few times around the track before relegating it to a wall. It was a little bit big for her but she just wasn't ready to part with it- can ya blame her?! Years later she offered it up on ebay which is where I came into contact with it. With it's unusual matte purple with matte gold decals I just couldn't resist! Not to mention the Sugino Decals on the rear stay and SICK Bottom Bracket cut out!!

The build was obviously a cinch since I just swapped over the DA10 drivetrain, pedals and wheels from my white Nagasawa. With the addition of Gatorskins, Nitto Pearl Stem, Nitto SP72 post and Suede Embroidered Kashimax 5 gold saddle it was complete! Would've LOVED to have tossed the Nitto Slider stem on there but the frame is a hair on the large side of fit for me so it doesn't really make sense to have it on there..

Fucking thing rides ALL TYPES OF NICE! Super smooth and responsive. Much like the last one. Just a little bit bigger. Best part is- now that I'm unemployed I'll actually have time to ride it!

SUPER. SUPER. STOKED.

It's pretty super fuckin' pimp too huh?! Tho I can't even tell you how close I came to tossing some HOTT PINK painted HED3 wheelz on there to give it more of a stripper feel instead. I mean, really, HOW AMAZING WOULD THAT HAVE BEEN?!!

Anyways, more coming soon!!

..meanwhile, in Korea

Naaasty Nagasawa!

It's been a hectic past few weeks..

..and now it's time to clean up:

..fucking nightmare

In any case, the Philly Expo was AWESOME to say the least! Great fucking turnout for a first time event!! The 22nd street Armory was packed to the gills with vendors of every type. A lot I'd never heard of too. There was also kick ass local food vendors outside serving up some delicious eats and a trailer with fucking beer on tap out the side of it along with hard liquor..

The overall feeling of the expo was more of a casual party than the typical drummed up stiff old man circle jerk. Just a chill scene with people of every type enjoying a great day out with good conversation, bicycles, food and drink. So yeah, it was pretty fuken awesome! Suuuuper stoked for next years expo- it's sure to be that much bigger and better!

I had a little space off in the corner and spent time screwing around with one of my latest creations that put a question mark on many a face. Don't worry, I'll have photos of it soon! I just have to install the flux capacitor and she'll be officially ready for time travel..

I didn't really have a lot of time and energy to take as many photos as I would've liked but here's the few that I did:


Some really, really good shit on hand. The Prollz was there as well so you can always scope out his blarg for more snaps..

I also managed to pick up a a few sweet parts at the Jumble just outside:

A NOS Campy C Record headset for $90:


aaaand then a set of Campy Sheriff Star Track wheels for $200:


Yes, of course there's a catch! While the lock ring threads are perfect the cog threads are a little fucked up in one spot. Which essentially doesn't matter in the least! I'll just thread a chunk of coke can in there on that spot and be gtg..

So yeah, good shit. Make sure to get your lazy fucking ass out to the expo next year if you pussed out this year..

In the meantime, I've got to get back to cleaning up. God not having a job kicks so much ass it's not even funny! I find myself wondering whether it's Saturday or Sunday still, hehe..

More soon bitches!

It's been a hectic past few weeks..